Television ratings are important and not just with entertainment programs. Most broadcast stations to this day bank most of its success around how popular its local news programs are.

As a matter of fact there is a television station in one of the top five cities in the United States in terms of population that recently was able to back up the claim that it had the most popular news telecast for the past forty years running. Ratings are so important in every aspect of broadcasting that it’s almost mind boggling.

So important in fact that a few years ago there was a radio DJ based in Florida whose success is so incumbent on ratings that he was paying people off to buy several radios with ratings boxes attached to them and turn all of them to his station when he was on the air.

Being that most news now is a cable TV endeavor, you can’t really do something like that but it’s something that CNN should think about if they ever wanted to be anywhere close to a top spot with any of their programming again because due to their inability to be square with all sides they are suffering in the ratings and everyone knows it.

From Daily Caller: 

Fox News’ monster ratings kept them steady in the number one cable spot in November, while cable news competitors CNN and MSNBC were unable to best the cheesy holiday movies featured on the Hallmark Channel.

November marked Fox’s 29th consecutive month as the highest-rated cable network in total day, according to Nielsen Media Research. However, the cable news giant fell to second behind ESPN in primetime ratings.

MSNBC finished fourth in each category behind Fox, ESPN, and Hallmark, while CNN finished sixth in each category. CNN lost to USA Network in primetime and Nickelodeon in total day.

TOTAL DAY: 

Fox News: 1,475,000

MSNBC: 1,024,000

CNN: 761,000

PRIMETIME: 

Fox News: 2,439,000

MSNBC:  1,835,000

CNN: 1,119,000

Fox was also able to batter CNN and MSNBC in the coveted 25-54 age demographic, although CNN experienced much larger growth in that category. CNN’s primetime viewership in the demo was up 24 percent last month.